Me and Wii Fit: One Month Later

I’ve been using Wii Fit for a little over a month now and thought you’d want to hear about my progress.

All in all, I’m quite impressed with Nintendo’s exercise software, especially the Balance Board. Wii Fit is certainly not the first example, even in recent times, of a product that attempts to turn exercise into a videogame. But it’s probably the most successful one, and a lot of that is thanks to the controller. Since the board can determine quite accurately how well you are performing a set of standard exercises, the feedback that you get from the game is meaningful.

By turning exercise into a game, Wii Fit plays on the same sort of impulses and positive feedback loops that make videogames compelling.

Although I haven’t been playing Wii Fit every day, it’s successfully gotten me into the frame of mind where I try to exercise every day. For example, I did half an hour of Wii Fit Sunday morning, but the day before, with less time on my hands, I went out and ran a mile instead.

It’s a significant difference from a month ago, when I wasn’t getting exercise at all. Now, I still might skip a day, but the difference is that I feel bad about it, and resolve to exercise the next day.

Wii Fit itself has ramped up the challenges for me as I’ve gotten better at them. Doing six reps of the push-up game used to be all I could manage, but I can now do 20. Finishing that for the first time with 100 points felt great. Same with the jackknifes, which are like crunches but you pull your arms and legs up into a V shape: Doing 30 or more of those with decent form is no longer an issue.

I’m losing weight slowly but surely. It’s fluctuated a bit since I started a month ago, but I’m down a few pounds. It’s not nearly what I thought I’d lose, but from what people are telling me, what I didn’t take into account is that the things I’m doing with Wii Fit are mostly for building muscle. Every time I play I usually do lunges, a Wiimote version of the "French press" weight exercise and push-ups, which all serve to build and strengthen those muscle areas — not so much to burn fat.

But since Wii Fit‘s main measure of accomplishment, tallying everything up, is how much you weigh, this leads to a bit of a disconnect. Why Wii Fit just measures your weight and ability to balance is beyond me — why doesn’t it have some longitudinal collection of the strength-training data? It would be cool to see how my muscle power built up over the course of the month, but that’s not a feature of the game, even though it would be trivial to add.

I’d still like to see another publisher take a shot at an exercise game, as I think there are some basic areas that can be improved on. The biggest is that there’s no way to just create a 30-minute routine for yourself and set it to auto-play. After each two- or three-minute exercise, you have to pick up the Wiimote again, go through the menu and pick what you want to do next, which adds a lot of busywork to the gameplay. I’m doing this because I don’t have time to go to the gym. Let me trim out all the fluff and get to work, already!

But overall, I’m pleased with what Wii Fit offers. I finish my exercise routines of about 30 minutes having worked up a decent sweat, maybe having set a few records for myself. I mostly avoid the Mii mini-games by now, having decided that the boxing and jogging aren’t as effective as just doing the strength training exercises and the yoga.

I think it says something, though, that a month ago I ran around the block and felt terrible, but the other day I ran a mile and felt fine afterward. This isn’t a new feeling for me — I used to be in much better condition, honest! — but Wii Fit is a convenient and helpful way for me to get back in shape.

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